Vodafone Carrier Services launches global messaging hub

11 May 2015 |

Vodafone Carrier Services has exclusively announced at ITW 2015 that it is launching a global messaging hub.

The Vodafone Messaging Hub will serve the SMS requirements
of Vodafone’s over 400 million customers worldwide, as well as be offered as a
service to other MNOs and aggregators looking to transit SMS on its
network.

Vodafone officially launched its wholesale unit at ITW in
2013. Since then, it has consolidated its international voice business –
bringing together the operations of Vodafone’s 27 independent companies – and
in the process migrated all its voice minutes on to a fully IP

Phase two of the company’s strategy has been to apply the
same thinking to its SMS business.

“The basis is very similar to our voice strategy: we are
putting controls in place to ensure we have the highest levels of quality for
our customers,” said Brian Fitzpatrick, CEO at Vodafone Carrier Services. “For
the first time, we have an organisation that can take ownership of SMS on an
international level.”

The move enables Vodafone Carrier Services visibility on SMS
traffic entering its network through grey routes, enabling the company to
prevent fraudulent activity. “It will allow us to shut down grey routes and
improve service quality,” said Fitzpatrick.

This is particularly important as the company aims to
support the huge growth in volumes of A2P messaging, which is estimated to grow
over 31% by 2017 according to Ovum. “A key initiative is the firewall
application that we are implanting across all our operating company, which
gives us that visibility at a very granular level to see where SMS is
originating and entering our network,” Fitzpatrick added. “We are taking an
active role to protect our 400 million plus customers.”

Vodafone Carrier Service is presently deploying the SMS hub
across its operating companies, and the service is already active in the UK and
Turkey. Testing is expected to be completed in its remaining markets in the
coming weeks.